This morning we come to the last beatitude. I’ve had many of you say how much you’ve enjoyed this mini-series on the Beatitudes, and I’ve responded every time that it has been a true blessing for me to study it. I’ve grown a great deal in my own spiritual life and been refreshed by the hopefulness of these blessings of the kingdom. As we come to the last one, we have before us another beatitude that seems almost contradictory. Let’s read together Matt. 5:10-12. From this passage I want you to see two points: the persistence of persecution and the paradox of suffering.
First, consider the persistence of persecution. Jesus begins this beatitude by saying that those who face reviling, persecution, and evil because of their professed faith in him will be blessed. There are two questions that come from this statement. First, what is persecution? Some scholars limit persecution to just that which is carried out by an organized group like the government or an opposing religion. Others expand persecution to mean any slight or conflict that Christians might experience.
In explaining what persecution is, it might help to first explain what persecution is not. For one, persecution is not retaliation. There are times when Christians have gained power and then used that power to harm people, either by restricting freedom or by persecuting other religions. Historically, this leads to rebellion and conflict by those oppressed groups, and then Christians, in a turn of fate, experience retaliation or revenge from those groups that were once oppressed. Is that retaliation what Jesus is talking about here? No, certainly not. I think it is important to understand that there is a general assumption throughout the New Testament, both by Jesus and his Apostles, that Christians will not and should not seek to use political or government authority for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. As we studied in the previous beatitude, we are to be people that pursues peace. Jesus tells Peter in Matt. 26:52 – “All who live by the sword will die by the sword.” Jesus would also tell Pilate in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting.” Even in this beatitude, there is an assumption that life in the kingdom of God in this present age will be characterized by persecution.
Second, persecution is not just simply living in a fallen world. Just because you are exposed to sin out in the world, just because you can’t watch a movie without curse words or because you have to be judicious about what your kids are exposed to, does not mean you are persecuted. In 1 Cor. 5:9, Paul tells the Corinthians that he didn’t write to them to tell them to avoid the people of the world, because that would mean that they would be taken out of the world. As the famous saying goes, Christians are to be in the world but not of it. We are to be salt and light to a world corrupted by sin.
So now, let’s consider what persecution is. In this beatitude, Jesus gives us three different verbs that get at the acts of persecution: revile, persecute or pursue, and speaking evil of. In Luke’s version of this same beatitude, from Luke 6:22, he uses a similar set of verbs: hate, exclude, revile, and spurn. I think these verbs get at three elements of persecution. One, persecution can be a hatred of the things of God directed at believers. Sin, at its core, is a rebellion against the things of God. This means that those who live in sin hate the things of God. So, if a Christian is living as he should, then sinners will hate him for it. Think of John the Baptist, who was despised by Herodotus because of his condemnation of her adultery with Herod. That hatred motivated her to have him executed.
Second, persecution can come in the form of exclusion. This exclusion can come by the loss of rights or the segregation of Christians to second-class citizens. In some Muslim-majority countries, Christians are relegated to the lower paying jobs or to certain areas of a city. In our country, we are beginning to see the diminishing of our freedom of religion. There are regular attempts by state governments to force Christians to violate their consciences with respect to abortion, homosexuality, and family planning.
Finally, persecution can take the form of slander. Jesus says that persecutors may “utter all sorts of evil” against you. Early Christians were most often persecuted in this way. Rumors swirled that Christians ate human flesh because of our language around the Lord’s Supper. Pagan’s spread lies that Christians practiced incest because of their practice of calling each other brother and sister. This slander comes today through our media, which misrepresent or under-represent the Christian position on a whole host of issues.
Now that we understand what persecution is, let’s consider the second point: the paradox of suffering. Let’s just admit it – this beatitude is strange! Jesus says that we are blessed when we are persecuted. He also says that we should rejoice and be glad (quite literally, “jump for joy”) when we are persecuted because our reward is great in heaven. James echoes this idea in James 1:2 – “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” How is it possible that persecution can be a good thing for the Christian. I want to give you three reason that persecution should give us joy.
The first reason is found in the beatitude – persecution proves our connection with Christ. Jesus says that we experience persecution on his account. In John 15:20, he tells his disciples, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” Persecution proves what Jesus said, and it proves that we are living like Jesus. So, we should rejoice that people see that in us and it attracts their hatred, exclusion, and slander. When I was in junior high, I became convicted of my witness for Christ, and as a result, I became very outspoken about my faith. There were several of my classmates who reacted harshly against that. They made fun of me for it. One even went so far as to call me “Billy Graham Jr.” When I heard that I laughed and said, “Thank you.” What greater complement could an unbeliever give than that!
The second reason we can rejoice in persecution is found in James 1:2-4. James says there that persecution is a testing of faith. When our faith is tested, he says that it produces steadfastness. As we grow in steadfastness, it makes us complete and holy. For the unbeliever, hardship drives them to bitterness, resentment, and hatred of God. For the believer, though, that same hardship leads a deeper dependence on God and a closer walk with him. Polycarp was a bishop in Smyrna at the end of the first century. There was a spate of persecution that broke out in that area, and Polycarp was a top prize. When they finally captured him, the Roman governor called everyone to the local colosseum to see this great man of God fall. They tied Polycarp to a post in the center of the colosseum and built a pyre around him. The governor threatened that he would burn him alive and called on Polycarp to “just revile Christ.” To that call, Polycarp answered – “For eighty and six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. And how can I now blaspheme my king who saved me?” Polycarp’s faith was proven on that pyre, and he rejoiced in it.
Finally, we can rejoice in persecution because it proves the genuineness of our faith. 1 Pet. 1:6-7 says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Persecution will always prove the genuineness of our faith. True, saving faith will endure. Many have bemoaned the decline in church attendance that we have experienced over the last few decades. While a certainly wish for better days, I can’t help but see the Lord’s work in this decline. I see this decline, not as a falling away, but as a winnowing. Over the last 40 years, it has become more and more difficult to be a Christian in our society. It’s no longer necessary to be a Christian to hold political office, get a good job in a small town, or be connected in society. So, people who identified as Christians for those reasons no longer do so. Is that a bad thing? I think not. It has proven who the real believers are. Along with that, many bemoan the rise of those who have no religious affiliation among the younger generation. There has been a tendency to classify millennials and Gen Z as “godless”, but that’s not what I find at all. On the contrary, what I have found is that those of the millennial and Gen Z generations who claim to be Christian are far more committed to their faith than their boomer and Gen X parents. Are their fewer of them? Sure. But boy are they on fire.
Let me end today by giving a call to our church. Brothers and sisters, we live in a society that is rapidly secularizing. We will face increased persecution as a result of that. We will lose rights, face threats, and be spoken ill of. Will we see this as a blessing or a curse? Will we see this as an opportunity to refine our faith and let our light shine, or we will we seek power as a last ditch effort to protect ourselves from the very thing that God says we should rejoice over?
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